Posted by Kim Skatun on September 15, 2010 at 2:10am
Lately I got into talk with several people at the airfield, both glider pilots, fullsize glider pilots, beginners and advanced pilots.It was just one off all these people that had taken the step to buy an autopilot set(Papparazzi), the other ones were really intrested, but said that the entry level was way to high. Theye would rather pay a bit more(<500USD) to get something that is plug and play.Therfore I would like discuss some thoughts around this here at forum.* Megapilot, is a great offer, has 8 servos(which is a minimum.. we found out..), because many planes have two aileron servos and two motors.* Add another shield that goes on top of the excisting shield, with header for gps, xbee, bluetooth, compass,airspeed sensor add connector for normal battery connector in and out(meassure battery current..), rpm for brushless motors and SD-card(To save calibration data, and logging)* Add a casing to the whole unit. It should take maximum 10 minutes to change unit from one plane to another. With screw monts* Easy setupA welcome screen which let u select:- which plane the current autopilot is installed in ( drop down menu + add new button)- Calibrate IMU- Calibrate Neutral of servos( trim the plane and then press the button)- Calibrate maximum travel (Move stick to maximum position and record maximum of all servos)- Mission profile- Logging- Setup ( gain values, baudrates..etc)* Everyone has a cellphone with them and therefore it should be possible to use this option to get flying. Can easily strap it to the transmitter, no extra power supply(normally or run it off the transmitter battery). Many people dont want to drag along their laptop.. The groundstation is a good solution, but can not show map.. small letters, many button presses to get to desired setting..)We don't think this should be an impossible task, and it will definately open up the UAV world to many more people. Also people said, they would also like to take the box with them when they are biking, climbing, sailing and flying just as a datalogger which logs, temperature, ground speed , airspeed, wind direction, rotation, position, acc. Because the dataloggers today normally just logs position..So its bascially to take all the optional sensor to the ardupilot and stack them on one shield and make a nice casing for it and make a user interface in j2me which can operate with the ardumega.If this is made at least there will be 10-15 pieces sold in my flying club.Hope for a lot of feedback...
You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!
F3X gliders with motor + autopilot switch = 8 channels.. The user interface is nice, but even a simpler one would be nice, and that runs on a standard phone...
Chris, can we work togehter on an expansion shield for the ardumega? GPS, telemtry, airspeed, current,rpm and compass..
Just a clarification on the number of servos as you mentioned... the number of servos and the number of R/C channels are different things completely.
The ailerons and the motors use one channel each (normally) not 2.
I think this is what will happen to Ardupilot on the long run.
The hardware is there now. Now clever minds are figuring out how to perfectionate the code. And once that has happend, I think the only logical step is, to make Ardupilot easier.
It then needs like you say a way to access it easier. I am a absolute noob getting into ardupilot and i am scared sh*tless by writing things in the code etc. If it would have a nice GUI and lots of dropdown menues, sliders and so on, it would make it much easier for noobies.
But like said, i think that is a normal development procedure, and that is what Ardupilot will evolve into on the long run.
Yes, we'll be releasing some more "plug-and-play" versions of ArduPilot over the next year. Some of that has been limited by regulations to date--it's illegal to export such an autopilot from the United States without a long and costly paperwork process. But one of the virtues of being an international community is that development and production can happen anywhere.
Replies
Chris, can we work togehter on an expansion shield for the ardumega? GPS, telemtry, airspeed, current,rpm and compass..
The ailerons and the motors use one channel each (normally) not 2.
The hardware is there now. Now clever minds are figuring out how to perfectionate the code. And once that has happend, I think the only logical step is, to make Ardupilot easier.
It then needs like you say a way to access it easier. I am a absolute noob getting into ardupilot and i am scared sh*tless by writing things in the code etc. If it would have a nice GUI and lots of dropdown menues, sliders and so on, it would make it much easier for noobies.
But like said, i think that is a normal development procedure, and that is what Ardupilot will evolve into on the long run.
Daniel